Two days ago I coated a print here and when it came out only half the print was coated and the rest showed traces of coating only. I ran two normal cleans, all nozzles looks great on 5 of the channels except for the Yellow GO channel where almost all nozzles were gone, and on one of the light tone nozzles as well. I soaked the capping station with cleaning fluid mixed up with distilled water, and let it stand overnight, the day after I ran two cleaning cycles and a nozzle test and it had improved slightly, soaked it again, and let it stand overnight. Today I ran two cleaning cycles, and the nozzle check now shows nothing at all on the GO channel, and still pretty much crap only on that same other channel too.
Could this be a humidity problem? Low temperatures just hit us here, and we turned the heating on full for the first time this year?
I do need to change dampers and capping station on this machine anyway, but I have a feeling that this is not (only) the problem here, first time this happens…
All carts are almost full, the vent caps are open, and there seems to be fluid in the pipes as far as I can see visually…
This has got to be the humidity, started up the printer today, ran a cleaning cycle, and now that most light gray has vanished more or less completely, and the second most light gray looks totally crap now as well (it was perfect yesterday, and I haven’t printed anything obviously). The other channels with Photo Black and darker gray tones are PERFECT, not a trace of dropouts or anything!
I can feel the air is really dry, my eyes get dry and my skin feels dry (this is a very humid place on earth during the summer, south of France…).
Air humidifier ordered. I’ll be back….
EDIT: Second most light gray is totally blank now as well, though I can see some “spots” of ink on both those gray, but it’s not even close to nozzle patterns as we normally know it…
I hope you enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving, and weren’t fighting with your printer all day!
Based on the information you provided, I suspect low humidity is a big factor in your printing issues, but cleanliness could also be a factor, as dried ink gunk can cause all sorts of issues. Have you cleaned the capping station, wiper blade, flushing box, and bottom of the print head? If not, I recommend you this along with adding a humidifier to your printing environment. We have a lot of helpful information about printer cleaning and maintenance, here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance
Please keep me posted on your results after cleaning and increasing the humidity, and let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana
Thanks! I hope you had a really great time with family and friends!! Thanksgiving is nothing we celebrate here in europe but I had a good weekend indeed!
Yup, I clean this baby every week, as it’s in dire need of new parts, I just need find the time to do the job… (I have most of the parts).
I’m awaiting the humidifier and if I manage to find a hole before it arrives I’ll change those parts + dampers as well…
I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve got something to report!
Received the humidifier Thursday last week, filled up and started it, kept it on at all hours awake when in the house (I work from home so that’s pretty much all days long) and filled up with water every day when needed.
Tonight I started my 7600, ran a cleaning cycle, and YES, the nozzles are coming back! After three cleaning cycles it’s almost perfect, still a cpl here and there missing, so I flooded the capping station and set the printer to rest for a few hours, will reflood it before I go to bed, and tomorrow I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to start use this baby again!!
Amazing!
The humidifier is set to 55% (max) and I’ll keep it like that all winter, I’ll probably find me a hygrometer on ebay within the next days too in order follow this up and keep some statistics for possible future problems.
Thanks Dana for chiming in, and I’ll get back with a report tomorrow evening!
YAY! I’m glad to hear bringing the humidity level up solved your problem, thanks for letting us know! Keep me posted and let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
It will be interesting when I’ve got me a hygrometer to find out what rH we have here during the winter, as during summer this is probably the most humid place in Europe… I could never believe it’d be that low!
Dana, all good here now, 100% nozzles on all 7 channels, luckily… as I got a cpl of print jobs from a friend yesterday (I use this system mainly for my own needs, but do stuff every now and then for some of my friend photographers as well, helps my ink economy a bit and gives them great value prints).
Have a great week, and thanks for “being here” for us!!
Excellent news, thanks for the update! I am happy to hear bringing up your humidity levels solved your problems, and made all channels print well again.
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